Amadeo

The use of three-quarter plates already allows a great deal of light to pour through the tourbillon carriage. This further increases the mechanical density in the upper section of the movement, especially since the latter houses the two traditional barrels supplying sufficient energy to ensure a 7-day power reserve!

A first glance at this tourbillon watch gives a clear idea of the efforts that must have been expended by the watchmakers in achieving such a result without making too many technical concessions. This is particularly true given the vulnerable and delicate nature of openworked movements, and particularly of their escapement. Engraving artisans traditionally receive sets of openworked bridges and mainplates and decorate their surfaces by following the cut-out shapes. In this case however, Pascal Raffy and his teams took a different approach to this tourbillon watch in order for it to achieve aesthetic excellence without reducing its reliability and its precision-timing performances. The secret of this successful accomplishment stems from the fact of having jointly entrusted the design of the skeleton working to watchmakers – for the technical aspects – and to engraving artisans. By incorporating technical constraints into their aesthetic endeavours, the latter were able to endow the plates and bridges with cut-out shapes designed to make a perfect match with the Fleurisanne engravings that they would then execute on the surface of each component.

Movements crafted by DIMIER 1738 (BOVET’s Manufacture de Haute Horlogerie Artisanale) are notably distinguished by their ability to highlight volumes. The aesthetic and the decoration of the movements are always conceived in three dimensions. The skeleton Amadeo^® Tourbillon watch represents the ultimate expression of the use of volumes that in make it more a sculpture than a decorated mechanism. The cut-out shapes of the parts, their engravings and the contrasts between the different surface states accentuate the complexity of the mechanism and magnify each detail.

Hours and hours of observation would not suffice to discover each subtle feature, each detail or each stroke of genius – such as that of engraving the plates on both sides. This apparently simple idea delivers obvious and breathtaking benefits, while also further complicating the work of the engraving artisans. It is indeed extremely risky and delicate to engrave the second face of a bridge or a plate without jeopardizing the hours of patient work that has been lavished on engraving the first face.